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University of Southampton September 2013 FACULTY OF NATURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE OCEAN AND EARTH SCIENCE SPATIAL VARIATION IN THE COMPOSITION AND DISTRIBUTION OF FAUNAL ASSEMBLAGES AT HYDROTHERMAL VENTS IN AN ANTARCTIC SEAFLOOR CALDERA Abbie Sarah Amy Chapman A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of M.Sc. Oceanography by instructional course. As the nominated University supervisor of this M.Sc. project by Abbie Sarah Amy Chapman, I confirm that I have had the opportunity to comment on earlier drafts of the report, prior to submission of the dissertation for consideration of the award of M.Sc. Oceanography. Signed: Dr Jonathan T Copley ABSTRACT Recent exploration of hydrothermal vent fields on the East Scotia Ridge has revealed a new Southern Ocean province of vent biogeography. Whilst the newly discovered E2 and E9 vent fields are dominated by a new species of Kiwa crab, gastropods, barnacles and anemones, another hydrothermal vent field was discovered in 2010, in a seafloor caldera in the South Sandwich Island chain. Few caldera-hosted hydrothermal systems have been studied globally, and such systems appear to contrast with ridge-hosted systems nearby. This study provides a first characterisation of the dominant fauna at the active hydrothermal vent field of Kemp Caldera, South Sandwich Islands. The project aims to address how faunal assemblages within this caldera-hosted vent field compare with those of ridge-hosted vent fields in the Southern Ocean, and other calderas around the world. Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Isis was used to obtain high-resolution video imagery along grids of 5-25 m lines, enabling creation of photomosaics of four distinct faunal assemblages, to examine faunal density variation across space, in detail, for the first time. Videos from larger scale transect lines are used in this project to define a wider faunal zonation across the vent field. Lepetodrilus sp., bacterial mat and vesicomyid clams (in excess of 125.2 m-2) dominate assemblages closest to visible vent sources. Meanwhile, photomosaics predominantly represent fauna from areas of diffuse venting, with ‘M1’ mosaic dominated by pycnogonids and gastropods (Lepetodrilus sp. up to 549 m-2 and Pyropelta sp. in excess of 14292 m-2), ‘M2’ by anemones (≤21 m-2) and gastropods, ‘M3’ by siboglinid tubeworms (≤103 m-2) and ‘M4’ by vesicomyid clams (≤125 m-2). The peripheral fauna mostly comprise echinoderms, in addition to midwater crustaceans and Nematocarcinus lanceopes shrimp. It is proposed that Kemp Caldera is a regularly disturbed site, with evidence for slope failure and a recent eruption. The site acts as an interaction point for Antarctic midwater, deep-sea and chemosynthetic fauna, analogous with calderas studied in the Caribbean and Samoa. The fauna of the caldera vent field contrasts with that of the nearby E9 vent field on the East Scotia Ridge, indicating that further exploration and investigation of caldera-hosted hydrothermal systems may be important, to obtain a full understanding of global vent biogeography. KEYWORDS: Caldera; Hydrothermal Vents; Photomosaic; Remotely Operated Vehicle; Vent Biogeography. This project is dedicated to the memories of my Grandad, Grandma and Grandfather. ‘Shackleton’s Nimrod’, by Gordon Chapman I hope that this work will make Gordon Chapman, Mau Chapman and Jim Samuels proud, as I am proud to be their granddaughter. I will treasure our seaside memories, Grandma and Grandad. Grandfather, I hope to visit Antarctica to tell you all about it one day… ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author would like to take this opportunity to thank her supervisor, Dr Jon Copley, for his guidance, advice and support throughout this project. Dr Copley’s input, ideas and assistance were invaluable and much appreciated. Thank you, Jon, for taking a chance and enabling a non-biologist to dive into the deep sea and pursue her passion. Thank you also to Professor Paul Tyler, for providing such an inspirational introduction to deep-sea ecology. Thanks also go to Leigh Marsh for her support, ideas and assistance throughout the project, particularly with data acquisition, processing and figure presentation – Leigh set the bar high with her figures! Thank you to Dr Veerle Huvenne, for her assistance with ArcGIS slope analysis and the presentation of temperature contours in UTM co-ordinates. Thanks also to Professor Paul Tyler, Dr Michael Vecchione, Professor Paul Rodhouse and Dr Sven Thatje, for their assistance with faunal identification. This project would not have been possible without the efforts of the Master, Crew, Principal Scientific Officer or the Scientific Party of the RRS James Cook cruise JC042, nor the work of the pilots and technical team behind ROV Isis. This project aims to assist the ChEsSo research programme, which was funded by NERC Consortium Grant NE/DO1249X/1 and supported by the Census of Marine Life and Sloan Foundation. Thank you to Sam Southgate for his support, cups of tea and multiple ‘final’ pushes in the right direction. These acknowledgments would not be complete without giving thanks to my family. Without their support and our travels together (from Bigbury-on-Sea to Providenciales, opening my eyes to the beautiful blue), neither the completion of the M.Sc. Oceanography would be possible, nor my passion for the oceans so strong. Thank you Lesley, Simon and Dominic (and Lettice – I know how you love the seaside too) for some magical memories beside the sea. TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION PAGE LIST OF FIGURES & TABLES ....................................................................................................................... SECTIONS I – Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 1 i. Life at Hydrothermal Vents .......................................................................................................... 1 ii. Biogeographical Provinces and the Discovery of the East Scotia Ridge Vent Fields ......... 3 iii. Calderas – outside existing provinces? ..................................................................................... 4 iv. Vent Ecology & Spatial Analyses Using Imagery .................................................................... 5 v. Aims & Research Questions ........................................................................................................ 6 II – Materials & Methods .................................................................................................................................. 7 i. A Description of the Kemp Caldera Vent Field ........................................................................ 7 ii. JC042, ROV Isis and Navigation: Image Acquisition ............................................................... 9 iii. Seabed Mapping & CTD Data Acquisition .............................................................................. 9 iv. Image Processing ....................................................................................................................... 10 v. Mosaic Creation, ID and Quantification of Faunal Abundances ....................................... 10 vi. ArcGIS, Digitisation and Contouring .................................................................................... 11 vii. Transect Data ............................................................................................................................ 12 viii. Statistical Analyses ................................................................................................................... 12 III – Results ...................................................................................................................................................... 13 i. Kemp Caldera within the Southern Ocean .............................................................................. 13 ii. Transect Comparisons & Assemblages .................................................................................. 14 iii. Mosaic Description ................................................................................................................... 16 iv. An Interpreted Zonation for the Kemp Caldera Vent Field .............................................. 18 v. Environmental Factors and Inter-Mosaic Comparisons ...................................................... 20 vi. Statistical Analyses ..................................................................................................................... 21 IV – Discussion ................................................................................................................................................ 21 i. Kemp Caldera within the Southern Ocean ........................................................................... 22 iii. Transects & Zonation .............................................................................................................. 27 a. Is there a zonation pattern across the transects? ................................................. 27 iv. Mosaics: Microdistribution of Visible Fauna ....................................................................... 32 ii. Kemp Caldera as a Submarine Volcanic Vent Field ............................................................ 38 a. Signs of eruption? ...................................................................................................... 38 b. Feeding and dying in a deep-sea caldera… ..........................................................